Maia

"Oh, shut up!" said Meris. "Where was I? Oh, yes; well, we joined a band of fellows-all runaways-they were on the game along the Herl-Dari highway, a bit south of the Zhairgen ferry. Latto had to fight to get taken into the gang-they wouldn't take just anyone. Even then Ldon't think they'd have had him, but the thing was they wanted me, and I wouldn't join unless they took him as well, you see."

"You mean they all basted you?" asked Maia.

"Oh, Cran, no! They'd have liked to, but Latto would have killed me. He'd have killed anyone who tried, too. No, I was there as live bait-worth my weight in gold to them. I used to pick men up on the road-anyone who looked as if he might be worth a bit. Then we'd go into the bushes and as soon as the fellow'd got stripped off and started, the lads'd get started, too. Gods, it was funny to see their faces when they realized! You'd have roared laughing! D'you know, one day I got three fellows-La-panese, they were-and made them think I Was longing to have them all three at once. They were armed, you see, so I had to get them all stripped and off their guard at the same time. The funny thing was, I would have liked to have had them all three at once! I s'pose that's why they

fell for it. Anyway, they all got undressed, right there in the trees. The boys had a bit of fun with them; and about four thousand meld as well."

"See what I mean, banzi?" asked Occula. "Sometimes it's play. Sometimes it's work. When you're lucky it's both. Have fun and make a ton."

"But what happened in the end?" asked Maia.

"What d'you think? The soldiers came, of course. They set a trap for us, and I fell right into it. I thought the fellow didn't look much like a merchant. Still, I got started and then before I knew what was happening the soldiers were into the lads. They killed four or five then and there, and Latto and two others they hung upside-down by the road. They'd have killed me, too, but the tryzatt said I was too pretty and he'd take and sell me in Dari. And so he did- once he'd finished with me himself."

"How d'you come to be here, then?" asked Occula.

"Why, that tryzatt sold me to General Han-Glat," said Meris. "He happened to be in Dari, you see, working on the new fortress. Ever seen it? No? Oh, it's unbelievable! He used to take me along with him and baste me on the battlements when he'd finished in the evenings. That was the best time I ever had, while I was with Han-Glat. He'd got two other girls, but he liked me best."

"How did you come to leave him?" asked Maia.

"Well, once when he was back in Bekla, you see, reporting to Kembri, he saw a girl of Sencho's he fancied, so he offered Sencho his pick of the three of us. Sencho fancied me, worse luck, and we were exchanged."

"What's wrong with this, then?" asked Occula. "Or is it jus' that you've lost Yunsaymis?"

"What's wrong?" answered Meris. "Cran and Airtha! You never get a man, that's what's wrong."

"But you say Yunsaymis got the marjil?"

"Yunsaymis was the same as me-she wanted a man. Sencho doesn't baste, you see-or very seldom. He's so fat he can hardly walk. You have to lie there and do what he wants-drives you half-crazy and then you don't get anything yourself. But when he goes to a party or a banquet, he always takes one or two girls with him. Only you're not supposed to have anything to do with another guest, of course, unless your master offers you. Sencho was very jealous of Yunsaymis-men were always after her, you see. Well, at this party he'd eaten till he couldn't

move and she had to sit there and watch the whole room basting, she said. So in the end she told him she needed five minutes' fresh air, and she went outside and got laid by one of the house-slaves; and he had the marjil all right. He didn't have the whipping, though: Yunsaymis had that all to herself."

At this moment Terebinthia came silently into the room, her bare feet noiseless on the red-and-blue tiled floor. Slowly waving a great semi-circle of white plumes before her face, she looked round at the girls one by one.

"What did U-Lalloc say your name was?" she murmured at length, looking at Occula.

"Occula, saiyett."

"And yours?"

"Maia, saiyett."

"Well, Occula, you're lucky. The High Counselor wishes to play with his new toy. After what we saw this morning I'm sure you'll be able to please him."

"Am I to go to him now, saiyett?"

"I'll take you," said Terebinthia. "No, you needn't get dressed: you'll do very well as you are."

21: THE PEDLAR

Upon the city the heat lay like a thick, soft filling between one building and the next. In the half-deserted Caravan Market the porters sat idle on their haunches. The very dogs lay panting along the shady flanks of the fly-buzzing, tinder-dry laystalls. The level of the Barb had dropped six feet and more, and the cracked mud looked like a huge, meshed net spread to dry by the waterside. The leaves hung limp and motionless and not a bird was singing in the gardens beside the northern bank.